The 5 Main Types of Mobile Apps | An Overview of Each

At this point, apps have become indispensable to our daily lives. The market is flooded with every kind of mobile app. Today, even companies that never needed an app before are entering the game. Why?

Some companies are doing their best to stay on the cutting edge, but many are simply responding to customer demand for apps that make life easier.
As a result, an ever-growing variety of apps now fits an ever-growing number of categories. In this article, we'd like to introduce the 5 main types of mobile app development.

1. Mobile App Development #1: Study/Education Apps

Educational and informative apps do exactly that — educate and inform. The purpose of this app type is fairly simple, yet educational apps such as news and language-learning apps come in tremendous variety. If you're trying to break into this crowded space, you need to deliver news or other information in a fun, unique format for learners of every age, interest, and level.

Babbel has helped millions of people learn a new language by offering users simple lessons synced across multiple devices.

Other examples of educational apps:

• The Weather Channel
• BuzzFeed
• Flipboard

2. Mobile App Development #2: Social Media Apps

Social media apps are the most popular type of mobile app. We build social networks, and most people access them every day. Facebook alone reports more than 1 billion active users daily.

Naturally, people want the easy access that mobile apps provide. Social media apps need to be fun, fast, and continuously updated with the features of the social network they support.

Today's society shares more about daily life than ever before. Because of this, even apps that don't fall strictly into the social media category may need to include social sharing features.

As an example, look at Strava, a popular running and cycling app. Beyond tracking activity, it lets you compare stats with others in your network — even strangers. Essentially, you can form running partnerships or entire teams online without ever meeting in person.

Many other apps let you share products, high scores, or news items with your social network, letting users easily share what they're passionate about without ever leaving the app.

If you offer a service users can share with their network, or sell a product, consider adding social sharing features to your app. This keeps users coming back to share and compare with their network again and again.

Common social media apps include:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Snapchat

3. Mobile App Development #3: Productivity Apps

Productivity may sound like one of the most boring types of mobile app, but it's an extremely popular category. These apps help users complete tasks quickly and efficiently, sometimes making even mundane tasks easier — and, dare we say, enjoyable.

Examples of productivity apps include many products from Google and Apple, such as:

• Docs
• Sheets
• Wallet/Pay

As well as apps like:

• Evernote
• Wunderlist

When done well, these types of apps are essential — meaning they let users complete tasks more easily, quickly, and efficiently than the competition. Convenient point-to-point features are what set this type of mobile app apart, so get creative and figure out how to do something no one else is doing.

4. Mobile App Development #4: Entertainment Apps

Apps in this category have one single focus: keeping users occupied. Entertainment apps are commonly used to fill time whether you're flying across the country, relaxing at home, or anywhere in between. In addition to their websites, many popular streaming services offer mobile apps so users can access their library from anywhere. Entertainment apps can include video, text, or audio content.

You may know the Amazon Kindle e-reader, but there's also a Kindle app for users who don't own the actual hardware. This lets more people download books from the store and read them on their own devices, greatly expanding the service's customer base.

Other examples of entertainment apps:

• Netflix
• PodcastOne
• YouTube

5. Mobile App Development #5: Gaming Apps

This app category is self-explanatory, and it accounts for the largest share of app downloads. With such a crowded category, it makes sense that there are so many kinds of gaming apps for so many audiences — arcade games, brain-training puzzles, or simple, silly games like flinging birds at pigs. Some mobile app games are played solo, others online, and some even face-to-face with a group of friends.

6. Summary

Every app creator needs to understand how to spread their app like wildfire. We'll cover this in more detail in the next section, but know that recommendations from enthusiastic fans are worth their weight in gold. Friends telling friends about your app is an extremely effective form of marketing.

Think about it: with a recommendation, no one needs to identify that they have a problem, search the market, sift through competitors, and then download an app. Instead, a trusted advisor simply tells them they need to download this new app.

They'll search for your app by name and download it without hesitation.